THE LONG-AWAITED

RED APRON PIZZERIA

NEWSLETTER

September 13, 2016

Everyone in the neighborhood is asking the question: What is going on at 3214? When is Red Apron Pizzeria going to open? The answer is rather long and complex; I will do my best to keep it short and sweet...although "sweet" isn't the right word in the current context – there's nothing sweet going on around here. (Well, besides my at home baking projects.)

I signed the lease in March 2015, and in January 2016, everything on the project came to a grinding halt. Nothing is happening. It's incredibly frustrating. All I want to do is open the place, let the eager diners in, and serve everyone the long-anticipated crazy good pizza they've been waiting for.

Just after I signed the lease, when initial demo began, we found some things hidden behind the built-in benches we'd decided to remove. That "hideous electric miasma" in one of my most early blog posts was a reference to that; but there was even more shoddy work, tucked way in the back corner, where the kitchen counter used to be. Not only bad craftsmanship, but actual scary yucky grungy things I don't care to mention by name.

When we went to tear out the non-ADA second bathroom, and the framing and sheetrock came down, we discovered an enormous number of dry-rotted beams and joists holding up the deck above our space.

And then there was the sewer, which turned out to be a total disaster of magnificent proportions…nothing you, reader, would like to see. Suffice it to say, there were many times when sewage backed up into the street in front of our restaurant over the course of several months, which ended in a crescendo that took weeks to resolve.

Will the pizzeria open?Yes.When? At this point, we are hoping for early summer, 2017. That's a long time! I know. There's nothing I can do about it now. We have to bide our time and wait until everything else gets sorted out. Then we can kick things back into gear, and work like crazy to make sh*t happen.

So. This is my story right now. There is more story – backstory – about the very beginning, when I first came to have my dream of opening a pizza place in the 'hood, and what has happened since then. That chapter will be coming soon in newsletter form. In the meantime, feel free to visit my blog, sign up for updates, and enjoy the cheery optimism of last summer and fall…and the more recent baking projects I've been using to drown my sorrows and/or do something productive during the delay. Which is tough. Really tough.

I know the neighborhood is antsy. So am I. Very. But I ask everyone to please be patient. The time will come. It Will Happen. It will just take some time.